The CTE project involves remodeling of a former Trinity Building on Burdick Expressway in downtown Minot. The city set aside $3.54 million from its National Disaster Resilience grant for the project, which is being spearheaded by Dakota College at Bottineau and Minot State University.

Also an NDR project, Broadway Circle includes a food pantry/soup kitchen, family shelter and low-income housing at South Broadway and 19th Avenue, which will be operated by Project BEE.

Some members of the Minot City Council and a few city staff members toured the CTE and Broadway Circle Thursday to get a look at the progress.

The CTE building has about 18,000 square feet that are being renovated with state-of-the art equipment for a dental assisting/hygienist program. The groundwork is being laid for installation of 12 dental stations on the main floor of the CTE, along with rooms for sterilization, biomed cleaning, X-ray and a simulation laboratory. The second floor will have classrooms and staff office space. The center currently is in the process of hiring staff for the first session, expected to start in the fall of 2024.

Liz Larsen, right, executive director for Project BEE, talks about the space being created for the Lord’s Cupboard to operate a food pantry and soup kitchen at Broadway Circle during a tour with city officials and staff Thursday. Standing next to freezers, which already are in operation, are, from left, CDR Grant Compliance Officer Anthony Barrette and council member Stephan Podrygula.

Dentist Mark Hildahl, who serves on the CTE’s dental program board, explained that students will be going into community dental practices to observe and get hands-on experience as well.

“Every dental office in western North Dakota has been crying to have this operation here,” he said, noting the state’s only existing program of its type is in Wahpeton. “We’ve had trouble getting students who go there to come back to the western half of the state.”

A dental assistant, who works alongside a dentist, must have a year of training. A hygienist, who works separately from a dentist with patients, must have two years of training. The Minot CTE will be accepting 12 dental assistant students and 10 hygienist students. They will need to have taken 18 credits of pre-requisite courses to enroll.

The tour of the Broadway Circle facilities along South Broadway at 19th Avenue included a look inside a nearly completed building that will become the new headquarters for the Lord’s Cupboard. The food pantry will be moving from its current facility into the building, which offers more space, better organization and a commercial kitchen for operation of a soup kitchen. There also will be significant freezer space and an area for cleaning and preparing fresh produce harvested from the organization’s garden near Velva.

Liz Larsen, executive director for Project BEE, said the soup kitchen will complement rather than compete with existing soup kitchens, providing additional meals in the community.

A tour group of city officials and staff prepare to tour the family shelter under construction at Broadway Circle Thursday.

Through the Minot Area Chamber EDC, Project BEE was able to obtain grants that helped pay for certain appliances and stretch other donated dollars. A number of private donations as well as public funds have gone into Broadway Circle, and Larsen said ongoing support from community donors will be needed.

The City of Minot allocated $3.51 million in NDR funds toward the family shelter that is under construction on the east side of the Lord’s Cupboard building. The shelter will have six units, each with two to three bedrooms. Larsen said length of stay in a family shelter varies but typically is around 60 days in Project BEE’s current facility that has six family units.

Larsen said the current unit has a waiting list, indicating the same could happen with the new facility once the program transitions.

“But I think this is a really great start, and we are grateful for it and we are going to make it work,” Larsen said.

A 17-unit, two-story housing complex with studio and one- and two-bedroom units is in the early stages of construction on the property. The foundation was poured in August.

A restaurant also operates on the property in an existing building, and its lease provides a source of income for Broadway Circle.